Philip Hunter

Just ahead of Netflix’ UK launch, Amazon’s LoveFilm subsidiary has opened up a long middle window for Warner Bros films after satellite broadcaster Sky but before general Free To Air availability.

This UK’s IP&TV World Forum that took place last week highlighted the mixed global fortunes of IPTV as it disappears into the cloud.

The BBC has unveiled a paid for download service, enabling viewers to purchase programmes for permanent use after broadcast.

Europe has been hit by a wave of OTT-related deployments and announcements as Siemens of Germany declares that IPTV is history.

Cisco’s $5 billion takeover of UK-based set top box software and content security vendor NDS gives it new customers and opportunities across Europe and Asia.

The second digital dividend agreed at the recent WRC-12 world radio spectrum conference will be a big problem for in-car TV, according to BMW.

The European Broadcast Union (EBU) has just published a study highlighting growing use of social media by public service broadcasters (PSBs) to halt a decline in news viewing by people under 45.

The European Broadcast Union (EBU) recently aired its views on network neutrality, copyright, and other issues with European Commission president José Manuel Barroso.

The UK’s leading pay TV operator BSkyB has been forced by regulatory pressure to let arch rival Virgin Media distribute its movie catalogue.

The French government has postponed plans to adopt the second generation DVB-T2 digital terrestrial technology until at least 2015 but other European countries are moving ahead now.

BSkyB, the UK’s largest pay TV operator, is using the UK launch of Netflix and other online rivals as evidence that it does not have a monopoly position in the country’s Internet VOD market.

Carnage continues in the boardroom of PACE, the world’s largest set top maker, with the departure of chief operating officer David McKinney.

Germany is harmonizing audio levels in line with the European Broadcast Union’s Recommendation 128.

Reallocation of terrestrial spectrum to mobile services brings risk of interference as well as loss of bandwidth.

French pay TV operator Canal Plus has been fined €30 million by the country’s competition authority for failing to comply with requirements relating to its acquisition of TPS in 2006.

The BBC aims to make up for declining state funding from the licence fee by earning more exporting both its own content and other providers’ via Global iPlayer.

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)’s announcement of support for premium video streaming between devices within the home was one of the significant announcements at IBC 2011.

The Satellite Interference Reduction Group (sIRG) made two important announcements at IBC 2011 relating to use of carrier ID for identifying sources of interference.

The gap between OTT and IPTV services is narrowing as each moves into the other’s space, but so far convergence is largely confined to the home.

UK cable operator Virgin Media has gone beyond many other TV service providers by becoming a provider of cloud services.

Sky apologized to boxing fans after technical problems prevented some people from watching the recent world title fight between David Haye from the UK and Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko.